#b: musings.

[tofixtheshadows]

You guys really need to stop and consider the ways you're talking about Kabru I am dead fucking serious. Like I know that flattening characters is just what fandom does to a certain extent, but Kabru's actual personality is getting lost to the fandom hivemind insisting that he's aggressive/cruel/sociopathic/hateful, and these are particularly concerning takes to see leveled at the only brown character in the main cast day after day. "My poor sweet golden child Laios needs to be protected from this scary brown man" is not a good look! Like, it's very telling that the bulk of the hate and bad faith readings are reserved for Toshiro and Kabru. Everyone else's flaws get to be discussed and validated and forgiven (or erased), meanwhile people are straight making up things to be mad about with Toshiro and Kabru but patting themselves on the back for being smart.

The worst part is how undeserved it all is. I'm trying to lay off anime-onlys because we're still kind of in the red herring stage of getting to know Kabru, but I would still like to gently suggest that even if you think Kabru is up to something, you don't gave to get in the tags of every fan creator's post and bring up how you hate him or You Can Tell he's totally evil. Sometimes I think Kabru's blue eyes give people license to say things about his appearance that they know would sound completely racist otherwise, but referring to his blue eyes acts as a get-out-of-racism free card. The jokes about the dog with brown contacts are getting old, by the way.

For people who have read the manga, it's disappointing. Kabru is one of the most complex and important characters in the story, and if you base your interpretation of him and all your fandom interactions on shallow first impressions you are completely missing out.

I know part of this is because Dungeon Meshi is a comedy, but the story also wants to be taken seriously. For example, it's admittedly really funny when Chilchuck calls Laios "sick in the head", but that doesn't change the fact that the way Chilchuck casually belittles Laios caused him to hide the fact that he was "hallucinating" from his friends for weeks. Those feelings matter.

Like, this

is funny.

But this?

Is not. This is just a very clear example of a brown boy with PTSD. As someone else with PTSD, just looking at this fucking sucks, man.

The only reason why Kabru thinks about killing Laios is because he is in the middle of a flashback. He's struggling through a panic attack. If he truly wanted to kill Laios because he's violent or because he finds Laios inherently annoying, he wouldn't otherwise talk with Laios normally. Notice how he doesn't act this way at any other point in the story- it's just because he's triggered by monsters. Even when he's thinking about his plans to "deal with" Laios later, he's reluctant to actually kill him and only considers it to prevent another tragedy. Despite his deadly skills, Kabru relies far more on "soft" power- insight, persuasion, diplomacy. He's a rare example of a character who absolutely is, or at least can be, manipulative, but seems to use his abilities for good. He's not a pathological liar, he isn't looking down on everyone behind a smile. He's someone who is extremely emotionally intelligent, and he's willing to put aside all his own basic wants and needs to stop the cycle of dungeons devouring humans.

I'm going to cut a potential thesis on his character short and just give some examples of things that fandom should consider about his personality more:

Racism in fandom isn't just about whitewashing in fan art, or using racial slurs. The insidiousness of bad faith readings, reductions to racist tropes, lack of fan content for characters of color, and dismissal of a character's complexity are far more common. You can believe yourself to be completely neutral or even positive about a character and still churn out low-grade bile about them into fandom's collective unconscious. Fandom reflects real life.

And I have been around fandom long enough to see how these behaviors (mostly from my fellow white fans) affect fans of color, how it makes a fandom feel hostile and unwelcome to them. It's fun to make jokes and memes, I'm absolutely not saying that everything needs to be a deeply nuanced take, but we need to be careful that it doesn't veer into toxicity. Please think about how our contributions to fandom come across, and what sort of vibes they cultivate in this communal space.

[mad3lyncline]

𝑹𝑼𝑫𝒀 𝑷𝑨𝑵𝑲𝑶𝑾 & 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑲𝑬𝑺 . JJ's Deep Sea Charters Commercial ( x ) .

[hinamie]

binding vow

[katerinaaqu]

Achilles is actually a Mycenaean Name

For the Achilles fans out there I wanna drop the random fact that his name actually appears in the Linear B tablets

A-ki-re-u

So the name of the hero is at least as old as the Mycenaean Greeks!

You're welcome!

PS: "Achilles" probably comes from the word "ἄχος" (achos) which means "pain" or "suffering" or "sighing" or "grief" and "λαός" (laos) which means "people".

So basically "Achilles" means "the suffering of people" or "grief from the people", which indicates both the character's profound grief as well as the rest of Iliad greeks who suffered by his rage

Suffer now!

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i think i need a lobotomy

[chatonlaveur]

I've been playing Zelda II recently 👀

[galaxyspark-6e16]

Broppy but make it hadestown.

[beautyxcharms]

[beomie-rabbit]

HELP HES JUST SO ADORABLE!!!!!🫠🫠🫠🫠

Credits: Jay B Live on b.stage, gifs made by me -A🐰💜

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

You should be a childrens' book illustrator! Your style would be so perfect for that I think! Really unique :D

While I don’t know any children’s literature writers, I *was* commissioned to do illustrations for a medical journal article!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

always enjoyed the Chess Set In The Foreground perspective framing used here

now also noting like, huh, a chess set in a general store just visited by marigold competitors who killed one of their guys and are now on the way back from their rendezvous point w/suppliers

[speakofcompersion]

TAEMIN - 'Eternal' Track List ♥︎

[mad3lyncline]

𝑹𝑼𝑫𝒀 𝑷𝑨𝑵𝑲𝑶𝑾 & 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑺𝑬 𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑲𝑬𝑺 . JJ's Deep Sea Charters Commercial ( x ) .

[thatsrightice]

I know organization of the bomb groups can get kinda confusing so here's some diagrams I found to help. l've also included a diagram of what a "Combat Box" looks like on left, note that "Coffin Corner" aka "Purple Heart Corner" with the red box in the low element is who usually takes the most losses. For a given mission, typically only three of the four squadrons will fly and even then not all crews will be flying.

Heres a diagram of the colors and markings specifically for 100th. This also highlights the four different squadrons within the 100th bombardment group and highlights their specific colors.

Here is a couple more diagrams that show the meaning of the different symbols and particular colors/markings for specific B-17 bombardment groups.

The reason we see silver B-17s near the end war, as seen in Part 9 of MOTA, is because those aircraft hadn’t been painted. When they came off the production line during the war, the shiny metal was painted drab green to camouflage them while parked on the ground. After securing air superiority, there was no real need to start painting them and so they started to leave them silver.

Check out the source document for these diagrams for tons more information regarding the colors of bombardment groups in the 8th AF.

[beatrice1979a]

You make me feel like it's Halloween

Because it's their holiday.

Happy anniversary, Paris Special. It's been an amazing year!

[halseyroom]

“I always knew I was a martyr and that Jesus was one too”